[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Hi Charlie,

As the name implies, the DSR-500 is a DV camcorder.
The TC on DV is neither longitudinal or vertical, nor is it recorded on an audio stack.

DV has all the audio, video and TC recorded in one digital signal.

(You miss all the “fun” of analog and its various “tracks” on the tape.)

So Jason, I’m betting there is a head-alignment problem between the two camcorders in question.

Try playing a tape on another (known-good) DV unit (deck or camcorder) and see what happens.
(Maybe take the DSR-500’s tape to a production house.)
If the TC is OK there, then its (likely) the DSR-200’s problem.
If the TC is still SNAFU, its the DSR-500 that’s likely at fault.

I’m thinking at least ONE of your DV camcorders may need a trip to the shop for head-adjustment.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

There is a specific FCP Forum (“Apple Final Cut Pro”) for these kind of questions, but since I’m visiting here…

Try:
Great Titles with the DV Codec
By Philip Hodgetts
https://www.creativecow.net/articles/hodgetts_philip/titles/index.html

And, its very important to judge QUALITY in FCP using ONLY an external VIDEO MONITOR and not just viewing on the computer screen (especially after rendering).

FCP is designed to operate with a full-time VIDEO monitor connected.
It can be done via a video card, or just a DV camcorder or deck connected to the Mac to convert the FW signal to NTSC (or PAL) standard video.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Alex] “I just want to get the file sizes down – not muck about with the clip size :(“

With DV, reducing the size is the only fast and practical way to do this.

[Alex] “Also would SATA drives offer a marked improvement over External Firewires?”

That depends on what you mean by “improvement”.

Assuming all things to be proper disk speed and in proper working order, internal drives (SATA in G5) will be “faster” and more dependable for video editing than external FW drives.
In fact, Apple does not officially “sanction” FW drives for FCP (although thousands of FCP edit systems use them every day.)

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Byrd McDonald] “now I have carpool/ tunnel”

Tell your friends to find another ride to work, or take the bridge.

😉

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[mproductions] “Also, I’m dragging the files from an extrenal drive & dropping them in Browser. Isn’t this the same as Import function off of the File Menu?”

Identical. (“Drag and Drop Import” is what its called.) That process will import with any settings you have chosen under the File Menu import settings.

Most CD audio IS very hot.
Just put a track in the Viewer and (even before you edit to the timeline) lower the level by between 6-12 dB.

Make sure you have converted your audio AIFF’s at 48 kHz sample rate
(and that your timeline audio rate is also 48 kHz.)

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

1. The “pan” will not include any right channel if you delete the right channel first.
(Highlight the audio clip, Modify (menu) > un-check “Stereo Pair”, delete the channel you don’t want).

2. After you delete the right channel, you can then choose to duplicate the left channel and place it where the right channel “was” (if you’d like).

The “pan to center” is the more established pro way to do this but there are many proponents of the “duplicate and paste” technique.

(BTW, once you have un-checked the Stereo Pair, you don’t HAVE TO delete the right channel, you can just turn it down separately from the left channel, if you’d like.)

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Europe is (primarily) PAL.
Japan is NTSC (NTSC-J).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC

You can find many sets of fonts on-line for many languages.
Just drop any new font into the Mac “fonts” folder, (re-) open FCP and the font will be available.

If you choose to title without buying a third-party title program, be sure to use “Title 3D” and not the
native FCP title options.
In addition to being much more versatile, “Title 3D” can use both “Type 1″ and Type 2” fonts, FCP titler is “Type 2” only.

As for third-party sub-title software,
check out the popular Belle Nuit subtitling package
https://www.belle-nuit.com/subtitler/

And there is a VERY INEXPENSIVE ($10 !!) subtitle plug-in from Digital-Heaven
https://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/indexflash.htm

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

There as a small error in the previous post:
It should be “Convert Selection to MP3” (not AIFF as I posted earlier).

The full, corrected method is as follows:

iTunes (menu) > Prerences… > Importing > “Import Using:” > MP3 Encoder “Setting:” > (choose “High” or “Higher” for best quality) > “OK” (closes preferences).

Drop your AIFF clip into an iTunes open window, click once on your clip to select it, and choose:
Advanced (menu) > Convert Selection to MP3.

Works VERY fast and stores new MP3 file in the iTunes library.

You can do a “search” (apple f) to locate the new MP3 file on the hard drive and then just drop it into an email.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Use iTunes.
I do this all the time.

itunes (menu) > Prerences… > Importing > “Import Using:” > MP3 Encoder “Setting:” > (choose “High” or “Higher” for best quality) > “OK” (closes preferences).

Drop your AIFF clip into an iTunes open window, click once on your clip to select it, and choose:
Advanced (menu) > Convert Selection to AIFF.

Works VERY fast and stores new MP3 file in the iTunes library.

You can do a “search” (apple f) to locate the new MP3 file on the hard drive and then just drop it into an email.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

It occurs to me that you may not have enough footage of the “sleeping” actor to give enough time for the WALKING away.
If this is the case:
You should create a FREEZE-FRAME of the actor in bed and leave that freeze on V1.
That will allow him to “WAKE UP and WALK away” on V2 (opacity lowered) while the freeze-frame on V1 remains 100%.

This whole effect is only possible if the camera shot is LOCKED DOWN for entire duration of the mixed effect.